Sci-Tech Library Newsletter
12/14/01
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- ENVIRONMENTAL E-PRINTS DATABASE: A joint project of DOE and EPA.
- PHYSICS STAT ALERTS BY E-MAIL: A service of AIP.
- NEW RESOURCE FOR SCIENCE TEACHING: Brought to you by the Learning Network and the National Science Teachers Association.
- NOVA FOR TEACHERS: A new part of the PBS website …
- INTERIOR DEPT WEBSITE TAKEN DOWN: As a result of a court order.
- NEW E-BOOKS AND REPORTS
- INTERESTING WEBSITES AND NEWS FROM THE INTERNET: The Nobel: Visions of Our Century, The Book Page, Articles on scientific aspects of terrorism from Annual Reviews — free full text, Nanoworld Image Gallery; Biological Sciences: Walking with Prehistoric Beasts; Computer and Information Science: Computer Science Technical Reports, Distinguished Lecturer Webcasts, CS Dept. of Univ. of Illinois-Urbana Champaign; Education and Human Resources: M.A.S.H. Kits, Young Naturalist Awards 2001, Re-envisioning the PhD, Science for Families; Engineering: Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen, TIME: Inventions of the Year, Grand Coulee Dam Collection, Horological Links, ATEEL — Advanced Technology Environmental Education Library; Geosciences: Ocean Oasis, Project Prosauropod, How to Identify Petrified Wood, Drought: A Paleo Perspective; Mathematical and Physical Sciences: Clay Mathematics Inst., Special Report: 2001 Odyssey Mission to Mars, ‘Warp’ Special Relativity Simulator, Hunt for Alien Worlds, CERN Document Server Posters; Polar Programs: 2001 Antarctic Expedition, Frozen Under; Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences: Psyche Matters, Flags of the Native Peoples of the United States, After September 11: Perspectives from the Social Sciences, Homelessness in California, Great Ideas in Personality, Crime and Justice Data Online — BJS, EconEdLink, Statistics Resources Econometrics Forecasting, Mountain Voices, Psychology of Imprisonment … and more … plus news items from Edupage
- INTER-ALIA: Washington as It Was …
ENVIRONMENTAL E-PRINTS DATABASE
Enviro-Science e-Print Service
“The Enviro-Science e-Print Service is a multi-agency project of DOE’s Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP), the U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, their content partners and sponsors. It uses EPA’s Environmental Information Management System (this link will open in a new browser window) to collect, store and access e-prints related to environmental management science and related scientific disciplines.The e-Print Service includes unpublished manuscripts, conference papers, presentations, posters and selected technical reports. Contributions are encouraged from government authors and government-sponsored authors in partner agencies. However, contributions are not limited to work funded by partners.” Right now the database does not seem to have full text links, but does have bibliographic citations and abstracts. Also be aware that left hand truncation seems to be a default so, for example, a search on “cation” will also retrieve “identification”. Interesting …
PHYSICS STAT ALERTS BY E-MAIL
AIP Statistical Research Center
e-Updates
The American Institute of Physics gathers statistics and creates reports on a variety of topics, including trends in physics education at the high school, community college, undergraduate and graduate levels, and trends in employment including data on physics bachelors, masters and PhDs, retirement data, academic workforce, salary data, and data on the representation of women and minorities in physics. If you would like to receive e-mail notices when new reports become available, register at this site. Current reports can be found at the AIP statistics website.NEW RESOURCE FOR SCIENCE TEACHING
TeacherVision
ARLINGTON, VA, December 2001 Learning Network [http://learningnetwork.com], the Internet’s largest educational website for parents, teachers, and students, and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the world’s largest science teacher organization, today announced a strategic partnership to provide teachers of science with timely activities and lesson plans to enhance science instruction.The organizations are combining their vast resources and Internet capabilities to produce a monthly e-mail newsletter called Science Monthly. The theme-based newsletter is geared for K–12 educators and provides timely activities, lesson plans, and resources for quality science instruction. The first issue of Science Monthly centers on the theme of animal adaptations, chosen because of its timeliness with the changing of the seasons. Upcoming topics will include nutrition, classroom safety, careers in science, soil, Earth Day, summer solstice, and assessment.
NSTA is culling lessons plans and activities from the rich archives of its award-winning journals, including Science & Children, Science Scope, and The Science Teacher, as well as from books created by NSTA Press, the publishing arm of the Association. These activities, along with a host of others provided by Learning Network, provide the content for the newsletter.
Science Monthly also links teachers to related resources and materials from both NSTA and the Learning Network online science stores. For instance, NSTA links users to relevant topical books published by the Association and guides them to NSTA Recommends, an online service that conducts and publishes rigorous reviews of thousands of teacher materials on the market. Learning Network offers thousands of teaching resources and hundreds of selected products easily purchased online in the Learning Network Store and through the more than 250 merchants in the SchoolCash program.
Science Monthly will also be published during the summer months, giving teachers an opportunity to plan special projects before the school year begins. For example, June’s theme will be community partnerships, which will give teachers ideas for building relationships in the community during the summer that can support classroom instruction once the school year begins.
Science Monthly is e-mailed on the third Wednesday of every month. It is available free to teachers of science who sign up online at http://teachervision.com/. Science Monthly is also archived on the Learning Network’s Teacher Channel, TeacherVision.com.
Contacts:
Cindy Workosky
National Science Teachers Association
703-312-9248
cworkosky@nsta.orgNOVA FOR TEACHERS
Nova Teachers Website
The celebrated science show has made it easier than ever to use its resources for teaching. It has created a database of its over 500 resources, searchable by:- Program Contents: Find descriptions for 170 NOVA programs, including program length and information about whether the video is available for purchase. For information about videos broadcast prior to 1993, visit Shop.
- Printable Activities: Many of our lesson plans, while keyed to specific programs, can be used with other programs or independently. We have created a database of more than 130 lesson plans, including lessons dating back to the fall 1993 season. Grade-level designations are indicated for each lesson.
- Online Activities: Just looking for online activities? You’ll find more than 100 of them here, complete with descriptions and grade-level designations. In addition, we provide you with any plug-in requirements and links to appropriate plug-in pages.
- Teachers’ Ideas: Discover how other teachers are using NOVA and NOVA Online in the classroom in this archive of ideas for more than 65 programs.
- Web Site Overviews: Find more than 85 of our weekly summaries of features on each program companion Web site, complete with grade-level designations for each feature.
Keywords are also searchable. In addition, there is a featured site of the week, program transcripts, articles about featured teachers, and more!
INTERIOR DEPT WEBSITE TAKEN DOWN
2/10/01 “Interior loses Internet service following court mandate By Wilson Dizard III, GCN Staff
Most Interior Department agencies began their first full week without Internet service today, as they complied with the Dec. 5 order of U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth to disconnect their systems from the Internet. The judge’s order stemmed from longstanding litigation over mismanaged Indian trust funds and the vulnerability of the trust fund databases to hacking via the Internet.
Over the weekend, Judge Lamberth let the department reconnect Internet service to the National Fire Information Center and the Geological Survey following an emergency hearing on Saturday.
USGS issues disaster warnings for earthquakes, landslides, floods and the like over the Internet. The fire center uses the Internet to help run a fire protection system and coordinate firefighting agencies.”
NEW E-BOOKS AND REPORTS
Report on Forum 2000: Fluid Properties for New Technologies — Connecting Virtual Design with Physical Reality. NIST, 2001.
Dropout Rates in the United States: 2000. US Dept. of Education, NCES, 2001.
The Nation’s Report Card: Science 2000. US Dept. of Education, NCES, 2001.
Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 2000, Detailed Statistical Tables. NSF, 2001.
Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition. WWW3, 2001. Draft.
Safe Passage: Astronaut Care for Exploration Missions. NAP, 2001.
Protecting People and Buildings from Terrorism: Technology Transfer for Blast-Effects Mitigation. NAP, 2001.
At What Price?: Conceptualizing and Measuring Cost-of-Living and Price Indexes. NAP, 2001.
Immunization Safety Review: Thimerosal — Containing Vaccines and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. NAP, 2001.
Resolving Conflicts Arising from the Privatization of Environmental Data. NAP, 2001.
Arsenic in Drinking Water: 2001 Update. NAP, 2001.
Letter Report from the Panel to Review the 2000 Census. NAP, 2001.
Broadband: Bringing Home the Bits. NAP, 2001.
Scientific Inquiry in Education. NAP, 2001.
INTERESTING WEBSITES AND NEWS FROM THE INTERNET
Articles on scientific aspects of terrorism from Annual Reviews — free full text.
A Note from the Editor-in-Chief of Annual Reviews: “Dear Colleagues, Following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, a frequent observation was ‘everything is changed.’ Whereas this is certainly true in many regards, some things do not change. Scientists, researchers, and students continue to ask questions and some turn their attention to issues that deal with the post September 11th world. With that in mind, Annual Reviews searched its online database of over 5000 review articles for key topics such as anthrax, Bioterrorism, explosives detection, treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder, public health aspects of complex emergencies, military nutrition research, psychology and international relations theory, ending revolutions and building new governments. As a service to the worldwide community of teachers and students served by Annual Reviews, we have made available the full text of ten timely review articles without charge. As always, all abstracts online are available free and may be searched by author and keywords. We hope you will find these review articles useful for your own research and for your students. Sincerely, Samuel Gubins, President & Editor-in-Chief, Annual Reviews”The Nobel: Visions of Our Century
Site contains profiles and interview clips of selected laureates, a timeline of the prize’s history and overview of its origins, an explanation of the selection process, lesson plans for grades 8–12, an interactive quiz, and additional resources (see Program Info). Companion site to the PBS special. (From Librarian’s Index to the Internet)Nanoworld Image Gallery
“The Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis is an interdisciplinary research and service facility dedicated to an understanding of the structure and composition of all materials at atomic, molecular, cellular and macromolecular scales.” They present a database of stunning images, everything from copper powder to a sheep’s eye lens — 700 or so images in all.The Book Page
“Download classic — obscure antiquarian science texts and articles — complete with original wood-cuts and copper-plate Figures; read ‘cover to cover’, or use your Browser’s search function to find and read specific sections.”Biological Sciences
Walking with Prehistoric Beasts
From the Discovery Channel, a companion site to the series which looks at the beasts of the post-dinosaur world. This site has a lot to offer, including “Ask a Scientist”, a game that encourages you to assemble a beast from bones, a picture gallery of the beasts, and a discussion of the changing world these beasts inhabited.Computer and Information Science
Computer Science Technical Reports
“This collection provides an index to computer science technical reports that we have downloaded from selected sites on the Internet. The reports are mostly in English, but there are some in a variety of different languages. The collection contains many large documents such as PhD theses.This collection contains 45720 technical reports located in 296 sites around the world.”Distinguished Lecturer Webcasts, CS Dept. of Univ. of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
This is a continuing series. The webpage announces future lectures, and also has archives of lectures already presented. All lectures are webcasted. Sample topics include:- Martial Hebert, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. Title: “Vision Techniques for Modeling and Recognition”
- Yann LeCun, Image Processing Research Department, AT&T Laboratories Title: “DjVu: A Compression Technique and Software Platform for Publishing Scanned Documents, Digital Documents and High-Resolution Images on the Web”
- David J. DeWitt, Computer Science Department, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison Title: “Database Systems: Past Accomplishments; Future Challenges”
- Avi Silberschatz, Information Science Research Center, Bell Laboratory Title: “Next-Generation Information Networking”
- Peter Schröder, Professor and Director of the Multi-Res Modeling Group, California Institute of Technology Title: “Digital Geometry Processing”
Education and Human Resources
Science for Families
Written for children, the heart of this site is the directory of annotated resource lists organized by categories such as Animals, Ask an Expert, Field Trips, Marine Life, Projects, Reptiles, and Zoos. In addition, there are regular articles on science topics such as hurricanes, building a worm hotel, and spiders, and a message board encouraging discussion of many science topics. (From Librarian’s Index to the Internet)Young Naturalist Awards 2001
“This year marks the fourth annual American Museum of Natural History Young Naturalist Awards. The Museum, a leading scientific and educational institution for more than a hundred years, created the program to recognize excellence in biology, earth science, and astronomy in students from grades 7 to 12. The Young Naturalist Awards is administered by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, Inc., a nonprofit division of Scholastic, Inc. that has been running their successful Art and Writing Awards since 1923.” Drop by this website and admire the creative work done by these students!Re-envisioning the PhD
This new site, sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, is home to the Re-envisioning the PhD project, which is tasked with investigating change in doctoral education, in particular, helping to expand the career choices available to PhD students. In the Re-envisioning Project Resources section, visitors will find conference materials, recommendations from studies, summaries of interviews, a bibliography, career resources, and more. The Promising Practices section contains information on the different ways in which groups (universities, associations, organizations, and more) are responding to concerns about doctoral education. The other two main sections of the site, National / International Resources and News and Updates contain links to even more resources, studies, current news, related projects, and more. [TK] (From the Scout Report)M.A.S.H. Kits
Young science students in southwestern Illinois are given M.A.S.H. kits (Math and Science Hands On), developed to help them achieve the science learning goals set by the state. There are three sets, one each for elementary, intermediate, and middle school levels. Using the activities included in each kit, educators can help students develop skills in prediction, observation, inference, classification, measurement, communication, data interpretation, formulation, hypothesis, and experimentation. Language arts come into play as students work through the exercises, and their math abilities are utilized as well. Teacher’s guides can be downloaded, but only for those with pcs. AD (From New Scientist Site of the Day)Engineering
TIME: Inventions of the Year
The year isn’t over yet, but Time magazine has picked out some fascinating new items in our technological array, with top honors going to the AbioCor artificial heart. Inventions are listed and described in the categories of health, on the go, household, basics, robots, and clothing.Horological Links
A list of Web sites pertaining to horology (the art and science of measuring time). It includes Internet resources dealing with watches, clocks, sundials, collectors, museums, organizations, heroes of horology, and more. From the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors.Grand Coulee Dam Collection
A collection of “223 images of photographs and text documenting the creation of the Grand Coulee Dam, built during the first half of the twentieth century.” Searchable by keywords and browsable by material type and topic (construction, land clearing, moving the Washington town of Marcus, official visits and events, Works Progress Administration (WPA) camps). Also includes an excerpt from the 1994 book Grand Coulee: Harnessing a Dream. From the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections. (From Librarian’s Index to the Internet)Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen
“Discover the surprising and seductive ancestors of modern cinema, cyborgs, computers, and other optical devices” in this Getty Museum exhibition. Connecting to this eclectic array of amusements, dating from the 17th century up to the present, is a fascinating and suitably modern way to observe the links between new technologies and the entertainments of centuries ago. Relic-like names such as “thaumatrope,” “physionotrace,” and “wunderkammer” add an otherworldliness to these automata, games, and visual diversions. (From Librarian’s Index to the Internet)ATEEL — Advanced Technology Environmental Education Library
“The Advanced Technology Environmental Education Library results from a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. ATEEL seeks to be a clearing house of resources for environmental technician degree and certificate programs across the country. Our electronic library will accumulate in one place links to all kinds of information needed for students, instructors, and workers in the various environmental areas. These areas we call sectors. They include air, energy, environmental management, field services, information management, laboratory services, natural resources, pollution prevention, regulatory affairs, remediation, safety and health, solid and hazardous waste, and water and wastewater. One of the most important aspects of ATEEL is that the URLS and other pieces of information are juried by educators and experts in the various environmental sectors. Students and teachers alike can trust that the URL has valid information because it has passed a review process by one or more of our experts.”Geosciences
Drought: A Paleo Perspective
In an attempt to learn as much as possible about the cycles of drought, scientists at NOAA have been investigating ancient clues. Tree rings can yield data dating thousands of years back, but for information beyond that, researchers must examine sediment from lakes and sand dunes. The devastating effects of drought are outlined here, limiting the focus to North America. We don’t tend to think of droughts as being as severe as tornadoes, for instance, but their tendency to be prolonged (parts of the Plains region of the U.S. suffered for eight years during the Dust Bowl Drought) can result in profound economic hardship. There is bad news: droughts with lengths surpassing any occurring in the 20th century have been seen in the not too distant past, and can be expected to occur again. By amassing quantities of data, scientists hope to be able to predict these natural hazards. AD (From New Scientist Weblinks)Project Prosauropod
The Fundy Geological Museum invites you to “Become part of Project Prosauropod and watch as researchers uncover the 200 million year old skeleton of a prosauropod dinosaur. Check in every week to see what discoveries have been made, as well as new animations and photographs of this important specimen.” The site includes a webcam that allows you to watch through the researchers microscope. Also included are e-mailed questions and their answers, information on prosauropods and on digging dinosaurs, and related links.Ocean Oasis
“A fascinating journey into the bountiful seas and pristine deserts of two remarkably different, but inextricably linked worlds — Mexico’s Sea of Cortés and the Baja California desert.” A complete guide for teachers accompanies a photo exhibition, a field guide, and under Conservation, a thorough summary of the current state of the region’s natural resources. An interpretive guide made to accompany the giant-screen documentary film Ocean Oasis. (From Librarian’s Index to the Internet)How to Identify Petrified Wood
“At first glance, this appears to be nothing more than just another over-designed personal website. Don’t be fooled! Keep reading. This is possibly THE most exhaustive and comprehensive website on the very esoteric (and much misunderstood!) subject of identifying and studying fossil wood. The most interesting aspect of this surprisingly professional website is the three long articles on petrified wood in Washington State (USA), the limitations of using low-power microscopes to study fossil wood, and the monetary value of petrified wood.” (From Websurfer’s Biweekly Earth Science Review)Mathematical and Physical Sciences
CERN Document Server Posters [.pdf, PostScript]
Posters for various exhibitions and workshops at CERN, the Swiss-based European Laboratory for Particle Physics, are now available within the Multimedia collection of the CERN Document Server. At this site, over 220 posters can be searched (keyword, title, or date) or browsed by title. The posters cover CERN projects such as the L3 detector and the End-cap Muon system and exhibitions including “Crystals of China” and “Collaborating through the Cold War.” They display labeled diagrams of equipment, specifications, and historical facts. Because the online CERN Document Server is set to provide thorough information about documents in its database, users can find the top ten keywords for each poster, get detailed file format information (.pdf, .gif, .ps), extract figures, and receive documents by email. The printable color posters provide an interesting look into the history of CERN research and outreach and make nice office decorations for science geeks such as this editor. [HCS] (From the Scout Report)Special Report: 2001 Odyssey Mission to Mars
Space.com offers this special look at the Odyssey Mission, the latest robotic probe circling Mars that delivered its first pictures back to Earth earlier this fall. If you can get past Space.com’s flashy pop-up advertisements, you’ll find interesting features such as “Water or No Water,” an article discussing the search for groundwater on the Red Planet. Links to infrared imagery from the mission, an animation of the canyon-riddled topography and a discussion of how the search for water is conducted and how it relates to the search for life on Mars are furnished. Other highlights of this Web feature include a schematic of the Odyssey craft; an article about NASA’s “faster, better, cheaper” approach to space exploration; numerous videos from their SpaceTV program; images (digital elevation models, infrared, photographic) of Mars from NASA telescopes and earlier missions such as the Viking and the Mars Global Surveyor; and of course, the latest infrared images coming from the Odyssey Mission itself. [HCS] (From the Scout Report)Hunt for Alien Worlds
Are we alone? That’s the hot topic in this neighbourhood of NOVA online, produced by the US Public Broadcasting Service in conjunction with its popular science TV series. Setting the mood with a computer-generated image of an imaginary world, this well organised section details the search for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. The articles are fairly superficial, being aimed at the non-scientist and the young, but are by specialists who manage the trick of writing in magazine style, while arousing the reader’s curiosity and maintaining accuracy of content. For those who want to learn more, there are links to the latest research on extrasolar planets. Amateur astronomers will find tips on backyard stargazing, with descriptions of the constellations and star maps showing the positions of recently discovered planets. An informative, easy to navigate site that’s good looking, and should persuade anyone to pull out their telescope. JAS (From New Scientist Site of the Day)Clay Mathematics Inst.
“The primary objectives and purposes of The Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) are to increase and disseminate mathematical knowledge, to educate mathematicians and other scientists about new discoveries in the field of mathematics, to encourage gifted students to pursue mathematical careers, and to recognize extraordinary achievements and advances in mathematical research. The CMI will further the beauty, power and universality of mathematical thought.” This website has some very interesting things on it, including Millenium Prize Problems and information about a video of a Broadway Play, “Fermat’s Last Tango”.‘Warp’ Special Relativity Simulator
“Warp is a program written by Adam Auton whilst studying at Bristol University to illustrate the appearance of fast moving objects due to special relativity. Warp allows you to see what would happen to the appearance of objects as they reach extremely high speeds. We don’t normally see these ‘relativistic’ effects because the speeds associated with every day life don’t compare with the speed of light.” Check the “About Warp” page to get more detail about the program. The program is available for download. The website also has lessons and a FAQ. Neat!Polar Programs
2001 Antarctic Expedition
Meet Ally McSeal and the Lucky Pup, a couple of playful Weddell seals, a unique species that lives in Antarctica and can dive up to 400 meters deep in freezing waters. A team of biologists donned their cold weather gear and traveled to the South Pole to study these amazing creatures. This site takes you right into the frozen tundra and details the discoveries the biologists make regarding the Weddell seal and its habits. At least online, you won’t risk frostbite and snow blindness. (From Yahoo’s Picks of the Week)Frozen Under
Sights and Sounds from Frozen Under
This site from National Geographic is full of information about life and research at McMurdo Station, one of the NSF-administered research facilities on Antarctica. Don’t miss the “Sights and Sounds” module if you have Flash — it is gorgeous and interesting. Also on the site is a forum for discussion of the impact of tourism, computer wallpaper, an e-postcard from a Weddell seal, a map, and more!Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Mountain Voices
Poverty is a sad fact of life in many developing nations, but Mountain Voices hopes to help change that. The site puts the names, faces, and stories to the people who live in highland regions around the world. It details the social, political, and economic climates in nations like Nepal and Peru, and offers transcripts showing average citizens battling their everyday constraints. From 17-year-old farmers in Lesotho to 38-year-old housewives in Ethiopia, you’ll glimpse the struggles and hopes of people who are not much different than your next-door neighbors. (From Yahoo’s Picks of the Week)Crime and Justice Data Online — BJS
Researchers looking for law enforcement or crime statistics will welcome this new database from the US Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. Visitors first choose from crime trends, homicide trends, or law enforcement management and administrative statistics. Information is available from state or local agencies, and users can choose the style of table they wish to see, such as single state or single variable trends. The tables are easy to read and can be downloaded freely as .csv (comma separated value) files. [JAB] (From the Scout Report)Great Ideas in Personality
“How do people tend to think, feel, and behave — and what causes these tendencies?” This site covers explanations and theories including attachment theory, interpersonal theory, intelligence, cognitive social theories, behavior genetics, the Five Factor and Penn models, and more. Each topic has basic information (with associated Web links) and a bibliography. There are also tips and resources (including a glossary) for students and professionals. Searchable. (From Librarian’s Index to the Internet)Homelessness in California
“This study examines the theory that growing income inequality has contributed to homelessness … The authors examine several economic factors that affect homelessness — in particular the relationship between rent, household income, and homelessness.” (From Librarian’s Index to the Internet)Psychology of Imprisonment
Stanford Prison Experiment: A Simulation Study of the In 1971, an experiment held at Stanford University looked at the psychology behind prison life. Volunteers were assigned prisoner and guard roles. The results, a disturbing look at human behavior, are described here in words and pictures. The site also offers discussion topics and links to other prison and criminal justice Web sites. (From Librarian’s Index to the Internet)EconEdLink
This is a program of the National Council on Economic Education. It is centered on curriculum standards and the essential principles of economics, and provides a premier source of classroom-tested, Internet-based economic lesson materials for K–12 teachers and their students. Along with online lessons, the site has datalinks, weblinks, and current economic events (occasionally tied to related lessons).After September 11: Perspectives from the Social Sciences
This new site from the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) contains essays by well-known social scientists on the events of and following September 11. The site aims to “provide the public and academic community with a deeper level of analysis than can be found on Op-Ed pages or talk shows.” Among the more than 35 pieces currently posted are essays by Seyla Benhabib, Olivier Roy, and John Hall. Wide ranging in scope, essays are grouped into seven topic areas — Globalization, Fundamentalism(s), Terrorism and Democratic Virtues, Competing Narratives, New War?, New World Order?, and Recovery. The site is regularly updated with more material as well. Future plans are to add a teaching guide by mid-January, to help instructors use the essays in lesson plans, and to use some material from the site in a book series that SSRC will launch in 2002. [TK](From the Scout Report)Flags of the Native Peoples of the United States
Examples of the flags and their stories of more than 80 Native American tribes. There are lists of tribes with known flags, flags of unknown design, and tribes without flags. There is also a section on where to buy tribal flags, a state-by-state listing of tribes, and a sampling of flags from native peoples of Canada, South America, and Australia. Some entries include links to tribal Web pages. (From Librarian’s Index to the Internet)Psyche Matters
“Explore the depths of psyche through internet connections” reads the introduction to this site, which includes bibliographies of the most distinguished psychoanalysts, papers previously published in scholarly journals, and on-line publications by those in this field. A table of contents links to books and journals, psychology and mental health sites, the Psyche Matters mailing list and feedback forum, and events, institutes, and organizations relating to the profession. (From Librarian’s Index to the Internet)Statistics Resources Econometrics Forecasting
Statistics resources website about Statistics, Econometrics, and Time Series Analysis (Forecasting). The Formulae section contains a whole series of widely used statistical formulae about descriptive statistical measures and continuous distributions. The Econometrics section contains chapters about Econometrics, Regression Extensions, Mathematical Models, and Box-Jenkins Time Series Analysis (Forecasting). A Free Statistics Calculator is now available and linked to the statistics resources section.Edupage
The following items are from Edupage. To subscribe to Edupage: send mail to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: subscribe edupage Anonymous (if your name is Anonymous; otherwise, substitute your own name). To unsubscribe send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: unsubscribe edupage. (If you have subscription problems, send mail to: manager@educom.unc.edu.)
CANADIAN SUPERCOMPUTING NETWORK BRINGS TOGETHER SEVEN CLUSTERS
Seven colleges and universities in Ontario have teamed up to form the Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network (SHARCNET), which officially became operational on Nov. 16. SHARCNET will provide supercomputing resources for a variety of initiatives, including research into genomics and cancer treatments, design of fuel-efficient aircraft wings, insurance modeling, and quantum gravity theories. More than 25 percent of Canada’s supercomputing power is wrapped into the $26.4 million SHARCNET. Its primary clusters are located at the University of Western Ontario, the University of Guelph, and McMaster University; the University of Windsor, Fanshawe College, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Sheridan College house the remaining clusters. According to a list compiled by the Task Force on Cluster Computing of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, SHARCNET is even more powerful than supercomputers at Caltech, Princeton, Cornell University, and the University of Cambridge.
(Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 21 November 2001 via Edupage)FAMED LAB SEEKS BIG GRID
A Linux-based grid computing project called DataGRID will provide computing resources to many European research initiatives. The primary driver behind DataGRID is CERN, Switzerland’s high-energy particle physics lab, which will soon start producing petabytes of data on an annual basis, generated by its hadron collider. The 10 million euro DataGRID is expected to be running by the time the collider is completed in 2006, according to Luke Drury, a cosmic physics researcher at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. CERN said that the network is just as large and important as grid networks in the United States, and that it will become an equal partner with them.
(Wired News, 20 November 2001 via Edupage)HOUSE SEEKS TO BOOST SPENDING FOR IT RESEARCH
Two bills introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday would benefit colleges’ IT programs. Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert’s (R-N.Y.) Cyber-Security Research and Development Act would earmark $880 million to create new computer-security research initiatives for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NSF would provide a number of five-year grants under the bill, including $144 million toward the establishment of collegiate network-security centers; $90 million for college fellowships offered to students aiming for doctorates in computer and network security; $95 million for improved computer security undergraduate and master’s degree programs; and $6 million for computer- and network-security technician training at community colleges. Meanwhile, NIST would spend $275 million over five years to support collaborative research between scholars and industry. The second bill, the Networking and Information Technology Research Advancement Act, would give $7 billion over five years to agencies pursuing long-term IT research projects.
(Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 5 December 2001 via Edupage)NORTEL, SBC, AND NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY TESTING OPTICAL SYSTEMS
A collaborative trial network designed to evaluate next-generation optical technologies in metropolitan networks has been developed by Nortel Networks, SBC, and Northwestern University’s International Center for Advanced Internet Research. The Optical Metro Network Initiative (OMNInet) will carry out tests on health care, industrial design, finance, and commerce applications. “OMNInet is one of the most advanced optical metro network trials to date,” declared Nortel’s Brian McFadden. Technologies to be tested include 10 gigabit Ethernet in metropolitan and wide area networks. Optical switching and high-level bandwidth technologies will also be assessed with OMNInet. Among the applications to be tested are next-generation 3D visualization, scientific and commercial data mining methodologies, and financially focused data transfers.
(Optically Networked, 5 December 2001 via Edupage)CENTER OFFERS E-GOVERNANCE RESOURCES
The National Academy of Public Administration and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University have jointly launched an online clearinghouse of ideas for better e-governance. Mike Dunham, co-director for the new Center for eGovernance, said e-governance is about the “people, processes, and policies associated with managing technology,” whereas e-government is about the technical aspects of applying IT to government services. The Center will work much as the federal CIO Council does for federal agency IT managers, but will focus on collaborations among governments, academia, and the private sector. Dunham said that understanding new technologies, such as biometrics for security, and their implications is a vital aspect to government technology, but discourse on such topics has been scattered.
(Federal Computer Week Online, 3 December 2001 via Edupage)WHY COPYRIGHT LAWS HURT CULTURE
Speaking at the Darklight Digital Film Festival in Dublin, Stanford technology law professor Lawrence Lessig said that American copyright laws no longer serve artists, acting instead for the advantage of copyright holders. This control is causing culture and intellectual history to decline and is stifling technological innovation, he concluded. People now need permission to create derivative works of copyrighted material, shifting the power to build culture into the hands of the property owners, Lessig said. He believes digital and Internet technologies have the potential to diversify and open up culture, giving artists more control over their creations and breaking the power of monopolistic companies. Already, corporate copyright “hoarders” are fighting technological breakthroughs such as peer-to-peer communications programs that bypass copyright controls, Lessig noted. Furthermore, Lessig declared that the younger generation of “netizens” is characterized by indifference and non-involvement in politics, significantly handicapping efforts to change the system.
(Wired News, 27 November 2001 via Edupage)NEW LIST OF BEST BLACK-COLLEGE WEB SITES
The top-rated historically black college and university Web sites belong to Tennessee State University and Spelman College, according to a study by the Howard University Digital Learning Lab’s Archimedes Project. The sites were judged on their utility — such as connection speed and navigation — rather than their aesthetic sensibility. Tennessee State holds the number-one spot, while Spelman came in second. Digital Learning Lab director Roy L. Beasely is disappointed that most colleges deploying interactive-database functions on their Web sites hired outside companies to do the programming. He noted that IT talent is not restricted to large historically black institutions, as high-rankings for several small schools demonstrate. Beasely hopes that Tennessee State and Spelman’s listing will inspire other black colleges to adopt similar features on their Web sites. The Lab intends to offer seminars, workshops, technical support, and critiques to help them accomplish this.
(Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 21 November 2001 via Edupage)CHINESE TO BECOME MOST-USED LANGUAGE ON WEB
By 2007, Chinese will surpass English as the most-used language on the Internet, reports a United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) conference in Geneva focusing on multilingual domain names. Currently, English speakers compose a slight majority of the world’s 460 million Web users, but by 2002, non-English speakers will hold the majority. While domain names have been issued mostly in English and in Latin-based characters around the world, domain names are now available in Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic scripts, with accents of Europe’s romance languages now also available.
(Financial Times, 7 December 2001 via Edupage)HEALTH, NOT MUSIC, IS TOP TEEN WEB LURE
America’s young people go online more often for health information than for music, games, or chatting, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey. Some 68 percent of people aged 15 to 24 (22 million), have accessed health information from the Web. Thirteen million have searched for sexual health information, the study says. The Internet is important for young people because they lack established relationships with physicians and want to explore information privately, said Kaiser’s Victoria Rideout. She added that the quality and reliability of online health information needs to be looked at carefully.
(USA Today, 12 December 2001 via Edupage)GOVERNMENT E-CHIEFS WELCOME ONLINE CURRICULUM
The United Kingdom announced a new 50-million-pound national e-learning project named Curriculum On-line. The government, software firms, and public/private broadcasters will be involved in the initiative. Curriculum On-line aims to provide online teaching resources on all educational subjects. In addition, the project would help boost U.K. broadband services, said E-Commerce Minister Douglas Alexander. Teachers would be able to offer customized education programs for each student, he said. A five-point plan created for the undertaking includes a library of e-learning materials, access to commercial products, funds for purchasing digital resources, and a content advisory board.
(netimperative.com, 11 December 2001 via Edupage)FEDS MOVE CLOSER TO BUILDING PRIVATE NET
The U.S. government announced Wednesday it will launch the next phase of its private Internet initiative, dubbed GovNet. The move comes after the government received a robust response to its request for information about developing GovNet. By building its own “corporate Internet,” federal agencies could share sensitive data without the fear of network attacks. The rise of viruses, worms, and denial of service attacks was one of reasons cited by the government for building the private Internet. The government reported it had received 167 responses from companies by last week’s deadline for the information. The General Services Administration will now create a 16-member team of federal agency representatives who will investigate the responses and provide feedback to the White House by February. Critics of GovNet, however, say even a private network is susceptible to attacks, and that its sensitive information could attract terrorists.
(IDG News Service, 28 November 2001 via Edupage)INTER-ALIA
Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923–1959
A collection of over 14,000 photographs documenting “the architecture and social life of the Washington [D.C.] metropolitan area in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, including exteriors and interiors of commercial, residential, and government buildings, as well as street scenes and views of neighborhoods.” Searchable by keywords, and browsable by subject. From the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress. (From Librarian’s Index to the Internet)Flight to Freedom
A STUDENT-RESEARCHED WEB SITE SIMULATES ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY
Bowdoin College’s Educational Technology Center (ETC) recently created “Flight to Freedom,” an online game about the slave experience before the Civil War. Users take on the roles of historical figures and go through a series of events. While going from city to city, they must deal with such details as their character’s health, money, and proximity to family members. Undergraduates at the college provided research and content for the historical simulation. For the past three years, ETC has been producing educational Web-based programs for students. IT professionals team up with professors to create the programs. “Multimedia environments allow people who learn and interact with information in other ways to be on much more even footing,” said ETC founder Peter Schilling.
(Christian Science Monitor, 11 December 2001 via Edupage)Science Folk Songs
“When I was a kid my parents got this six-LP set of science-themed folk songs for my sister and me. They were produced in the late 1950s / early 1960s by Hy Zaret and Lou Singer. Zaret’s main claim to fame is writing the lyrics to the classic ‘Unchained Melody’ for the 1955 movie ‘Unchained’, later recorded by the Righteous Brothers and more recently used in ‘Ghost’. Three of the albums (the best three in my opinion) were performed by Tom Glazer, semi-famous 1940s folk musician and somewhat of a lyricist himself (he wrote ‘On Top of Spaghetti’). The Science Songs lyrics were very Atomic Age, while the tunes were generally riffs on popular or genre music of the time. We played them incessantly.” Thanks, Jef Poskanzer, these are priceless!